[mchannon]

There's a bit of a Dunning-Kruger effect analog when it comes to sizing up candidates.

You may be worth $175k to the company, and be in a realistic position to know that. The person hiring you may not be good at his job and may honestly value you at $125k. After all, his current staff were valued by others (and are thus known quantities) and must by definition be worth what they're paid (even if they're in reality only worth $80k).

I'd give that position a miss, since being bad at valuing needed talent is a red flag for being bad at other essential aspects of quality management.

It's an extremely rare bit of candor for a candidate to say, straight-out, you don't pay enough. Despite the value of this information, most hiring managers don't see it as valuable.